Blogcritics review: Marguerite Duras's Writing

Writing is a stream of consciousness collection of essays by French author and film director Marguerite Duras, best known for her novel The Lover and her screenplay for the film Hiroshima Mon Amour.

Duras_Writing coverWriting is a stream of consciousness collection of essays by French author and film director Marguerite Duras, best known for her novel The Lover and her screenplay for the film Hiroshima Mon Amour.

One of her last books, Writing reads as a running meditation on the act of writing. She touches on the many subjects, especially death, that have compelled her to write. As much as she directs some of her prose to the reader, the essays quite often seem like Duras's dialogue, discussion, even argument, with herself and why she writes.

The five essays in the volume are almost poetic in structure; isolated thoughts about a topic set on the page.

In "Writing," the title essay, Duras tries to set down the myriad things that influence her work — her house, her love life, even an afternoon spent watching the death of a fly.

"I swear it. I swear all of it. I have never lied in a book. Or even in my life. Except to men. Never."

"Insults are just as strong as writing. It's a form of writing, but addressed to someone."

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Published in: Blog Critics